As the old cliche goes – Make first impressions count.

According to research published in nature.com’s news, web surfers make snap decisions in just 50 milliseconds.

Like the look of our website? Whatever the answer (and hopefully it was yes), the chances are you made your mind up within the first twentieth of a second. A study by researchers in Canada has shown that the snap decisions Internet users make about the quality of a web page have a lasting impact on their opinions.

We all know that first impressions count, but this study shows that the brain can make flash judgements almost as fast as the eye can take in the information.

Here’s a small checklist of ways to counter the effects of visitor’s short attention span:

  • Create a powerful, compelling benefit to offer the reader – This goes especially for landing pages.
  • Put the most important and most relevant information such as the headline or reason why “above the fold” – Mail order marketers pioneered this technique of having sales letters folded in such a way as to show the top part of their salesletter first making it easy for the reader to continue reading.
  • Choose site color schemes that enhance the site’s message – eg. Avoid dark backgrounds and white text which make text hard to read; avoid gaudy background colors which distract a reader’s attention
  • Design an intuitive navigational system for the site – If users have a tough time finding their way around a site, they’ll simply leave and go elsewhere.
  • Make it easy to opt-in/subscribe to your newsletter, order your product, or skim your page – Place multiple opt-in boxes, order links, subheads, etc. in copy.

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